October 22nd

Oct 22nd
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day! Our new best friends, told us about the 'Cactus cafe' , just past the luxury resort. Went there for breakfast had scrambled egg on toast, 2 extra toast, jam & butter, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee, all for 2 buckeroos !!!!!! Decided to rent out a scooter and head for the Langkawi Cable Car. It goes to the top of Gunung Machincang mountain, and it has the steepest gradient in the world at 42 o. Also has the longest single rope cable in the world at 919.5m. We took the coastal road and the views were great. It took us about 30 mins to get there. The island is quite small, the circular road is approx 70kl. We were on the cable car for a few mins when it stopped and slowly starting swinging . Derek was looking a bit green as he has a fear of heights. It normally would only take a few minutes to get to the top. After about 15 mins, he was looking worse and starting to sweat. Luckily, the car started moving again, but stopped just before we reached the first platform at 650 m. Again, we waited for 15/20 mins, now dereks shirt is wet and his eyes are wild !!! All the time we are swaying , and watching the other cars bouncing around on this Longest Single Rope Cable, just when I thought derek was getting ready to jump out we started moving again and arrived at the first platform. We were told that the cable car was having mechanical problems and we'd have to wait 1/2hr for them to fix it. By now derek just wanted to get down , so we crossed over to the opposite platform and waited . Eventually, the cars were moving again, but just barely crawling, we got in and went down! The whole ride took over 2 hrs to the first platform, should have been 5 mins! Glad to get back on our scooter and head to our favorite resort, remembered my camera this time. Photo shows the swimming pool in our guest house, then Derek in the resorts pool-- Big difference ! Sat around on the beach for a couple of hours, weather was great!! In the evening , we drove to Kuah, which is the islands main town, quite small and geared around tourists. Lovely evening drive home, dodging monkeys, dogs and Water buffalo ! This really is a beautiful island, small commercial areas but otherwise unspoilt. It's very mountainous , covered with tropical forests. The roads are in great condition, and the place is very clean. I'm liking this place more each day!